''Borealosuchus'' (meaning "

boreal Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...

crocodile") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of crocodyliforms that lived from the Late Cretaceous to the Eocene in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It was named by Chris Brochu in 1997 for several species that had been assigned to '' Leidyosuchus''. The species assigned to it are: ''B. sternbergii'', the type species, from the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming; ''B. acutidentatus'', from the Paleocene of Saskatchewan; ''B. formidabilis'', from the Paleocene of North Dakota; ''B. griffithi'', from the Paleocene of Alberta; and ''B. wilsoni'', from the Eocene of Wyoming. ''B. formidabilis'' is particularly well-known, represented by the remains of many individuals from the Wannagan Creek site in North Dakota. ''Borealosuchus'' was a mid-sized crocodyliform; ''B. acutidentatus'' reached up to in length with a skull.

Taxonomy

Six species of ''Borealosuchus'' are currently recognized. In order of their naming, they are ''B. sternbergii'', ''B. acutidentatus'', ''B. wilsoni'', ''B. formidabilis'', ''B. griffithi'', and ''B. threeensis''.
Fossilworks Four of these species (''B. sternbergi'', ''B. acutidentatus'', ''B. wilsoni'', and ''B. formidabilis'') were originally named as species of ''Leidyosuchus''. A sixth species of ''Borealosuchus'', ''B. threeensis'', was named in 2012. Fossils of this species were found in the Inversand Company Marl Pit of Gloucester County, New Jersey. The specific name is a reference to Exit 3 of the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...

, which is the closest highway exit to the type locality. The authors of the paper describing ''B. threeensis'' noted that the name is "in reference to a question every New Jersey resident encounters when traveling: 'Oh, you’re from New Jersey? Which exit?'".

Classification

Although some earlier phylogenetic studies proposed ''Borealosuchus'' to be a member of Crocodylia, recent studies are now recovering ''Borealosuchus'' as a basal eusuchian not belonging to Crocodylia, as shown in the cladogram below:

References

External links

''Borealosuchus''
in the Paleobiology Database {{Taxonbar, from=Q2489118, from2=Q12899046, from3=Q12899047, from4=Q12899045, from5=Q21256030, from6=Q12899041 Neosuchians Paleocene crocodylomorphs Eocene crocodylomorphs Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of North America Late Cretaceous reptiles of North America Hell Creek fauna Paleocene reptiles of North America Eocene reptiles of North America Fossil taxa described in 1997 Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera